Surrealism burst onto the British scene in June 1936 with the International Surrealist Exhibition in London. Ninety years on Treasure House Fair will commemorate that seminal show with a display of forty masterpieces from Southampton City Art Gallery, rarely shown together until now. London’s flagship summer fair is at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea from June 25-30. No less than 60 galleries have convened on the grounds for a fair spanning millennia and continents, from a 25,000 year old woolly mammoth head to the iconic coloured photograph of earth taken from Apollo 8 in 1968. The exhibition on Surrealism will bring together celebrated figures such as Paul Delvaux and Giorgio de Chirico, alongside prominent British Surrealists, many of whom took part in the landmark 1936 exhibition. It will feature Roland Penrose, Paul Nash, John Banting, Sam Haile, Conroy Maddox, Reuben Mednikoff, Desmond Morris and Peter Rose Pulham.
All the drama and visual intensity of the work of William Blake (1757-1827) is captured in this work titled The Grave: The soul hovering over the body reluctantly parting with life. The pencil, ink and watercolour at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London on June 30 with an estimate of £500,000-£800,000 (€579,200-€926,720) serves as a reminder that there is still time the catch the Blake exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, with a selection of some his most iconic works along with paintings and drawings by his contemporaries, is a loan exhibition from Tate. It is at the National Gallery until July 19. Blake’s influence on artists, musicians and writers continues to resonate strongly to this day.
The Gaiety Theatre archive. UPDATE: THIS MADE 15,000 AT HAMMER
From the rapid construction of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in 1871 to an incredibly rare 1823 second edition of Frankenstein, the Carton House music collection to the earliest printed house contents sale catalogue in Ireland, Fonsie Mealy’s rare book and collections sale in Castlecomer next week covers a multitude.
The catalogue includes the fascinating fact that the much loved Gaiety Theatre – which opened in 1871 and continues merrily to this day – was reputedly built in just 28 weeks from start to finish. Contrast that with a certain Events Centre in Cork where the first sod was turned ten and a half years ago and sod all has happened since. An archive of around 200 vellum patents and legal documents relating to The Gaiety – Sarah Bernhardt, Eileen Terry, Pavarotti, Maureen Potter, Jimmy O’Dea and the D’Oyly Carte Company have all performed here – is estimated at €7,000-€9,000.
A letter signed by Michael Collins as Minister for Finance. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
The Carton House collection of 18th and 19th century music, purchased at the 1949 dispersal sale, is among the largest collections of music from an Irish stately home to come to market. Music by Handel, Beethoven and Haydn is included among 45 volumes in original calf bindings, many signed by the Duke of Leinster (€5,000-€7,000).
The newly discovered catalogue by Baillie Auctioneer for the sale of the goods of the late Edward Wingfield at Powerscourt and his house in Dublin (€3,000-€5,000) announces (confusingly) that it will begin .. “on Tuesday the 25th day of February 1728-29 and to continue till all are sold”. It lists contents from 45 rooms with lots ranging from 24 fine walnut chairs with Barbary leather seats, a Turkey carpet, five pairs of yellow Indian damask curtains to “One young black Stone Horse fit for an officer” and a stage coach with a new seat cloth never used since it was re-lined.
A 1951-52 photograph of Brendan Behan and Micheal MacLiammoir signed by Daniel Farson. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
Irish and international literature is headed by a rare 1823 edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a second (1813) edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and a signed limited edition printing of Bog Poems by Seamus Heaney. A sonnet handwritten by William Wordsworth with provenance to the de Veres of Curragh Chase and the O’Briens of Dromoland Castle is estimated at €1,500-€2,000. A 1951-52 photograph of Brendan Behan and Michael MacLiammoir by Daniel Farson (€700-€900) and a first (1957) edition of From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming (€350-€420) feature among the fascinating lots.
The most expensively estimated of these is the Moore St. flag of Truce, a white linen handkerchief used by Volunteers to surrender during the East Rising (€10,000-€15,000). There is a rare 1918 printing of The Proclamation of the Irish Republic, a 1916 Volunteers green tunic and a 1920 letter signed by Michael Collins as Minister for Finance.
Sporting memorabilia includes a programme for an early soccer international between Ireland and England at Goodison Park, Liverpool in 1907 and a 1914 All Ireland football final programme between Kerry and Wexford which ended in a draw.
The three day sale takes place next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday June 23, 24 and 25. It is on view in Castlecomer on the afternoon of June 21 and from 10 am to 5 pm on June 22. The catalogue is online.
Ist Edition From Russia with Love UPDATE: THIS MADE 400 AT HAMMER
The Islands by Vivien John (1915-1994) UPDATE: THIS MADE €120 AT HAMMER
Aidan Foley’s online evening auctions on June 22 and 23, now on view in Doneraile, offer 122 lots of paintings and prints headed by a Translucent Study by Francis Tansey and a pencil sketch of Lily Yeats by John Butler Yeats. There is a Regency style three pillar dining table, a Victorian boot and stick stand, a Victorian oak consul table, an Edwardian Sutherland table and a pair of gilt framed armchairs among a selection of 82 lots of furniture. A selection of pub memorabilia, garden furniture, porcelain and crystal and a wide variety of collectibles is on offer.
A gem set and diamond bracelet. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
This gem set and diamond bracelet is among the leading lots at Adam’s Jewellery Box sale in Dublin on June 23. Mounted in 18 carat gold with partial Italian registry marks it contains rubies, sapphires, emeralds, citrines, amethysts, tourmalines, peridots, aquamarines topazes, morganites and diamonds. The estimate is €7,000-€8,000. A total of 336 lots will come under the hammer.
Claude Monet – Nymphéas. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £40,760,000
Nymphéas (1907) by Monet at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening auction in London on June 24 carries the highest estimate ever placed on a work by the artist at auction in Europe. Painted in 1907 the ethereal and luminous view of Monet’s famed water lily pond at Giverny is estimated at £30-£40 million. Together with the Lewis Collection and other major works on the same evening the painting arrives at a defining moment for the London art market, bringing an exceptional concentration of museum-quality works to auction.
ART DECO WALNUT AND CHROME CONSOLE TABLE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200
This Art Deco console table of inverted triangular form is lot 89 at Mullen’s timed online auction which runs at Laurel Park, Bray, Co. Wicklow until the evening of June 21. The estimate is €1,200-€1,800. There are 629 lots on a catalogue which features art, twenty lots of garden furniture, furniture and a wide selection of collectibles.
This lithograph by Henry Moore is at Whyte’s summer online art auction which runs until June 29. Number 9 from an edition of 50 is signed on the lower right and estimated at €1,000-€1,500. The sale of 242 lots includes work by Jack Butler Yeats, Walter Osborne, Estella Solomons, Eva Hamilton, Harry Kernoff, Daniel O’Neill, James Brohan, Liam Treacy, Bridget Flinn, Banksy and Nelson Mandela. Viewing gets underway at Molesworth St. in Dublin today and the catalogue is online.
Scene in Braemar by Sir Edwin Landseer, a little known sister painting to The Monarch of the Glen, is at Sotheby’s Old Masters evening sale in London on July 1. The estimate is £3-£4 million. Painted by 1857, the nearly nine-foot canvas has long been understood as a darker and more mysterious sister painting toLandseer’s iconic image of the Highland stag – one of the most recognisable symbols of British art.
The title locates the scene at Braemar in the eastern Highlands, close to Mar Lodge, where Landseer frequently stayed while stalking in the Deeside forests. This was the part of Scotland he knew most intimately – near Blair Atholl, another of his regular haunts, and Balmoral, the royal residence built for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were among his most important patrons.
A FAMILLE ROSE EXPORT PORCELAIN ‘SCOTSMEN’ PLATE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
One of the more unusual lots at Adam’s Asian and Tribal art auction on June 25 is this Qianlong Scotsmen plate. The ‘Scotsmen’ or ‘Highlanders’ decoration count as one of the most important and iconic imageries seen on Chinese export art. The figures in the centre depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, known as Jacobitism, which aimed to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. On July 18, 1743, Corporals Samuel and Malcolm McPherson and Private Farquar Shaw were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia, USA, as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialised on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures. This plate dates to 1745-50 and is estimated at €1,500-€3,000.
